10 Video Game Sequels That Utterly Ruined Their Franchises

9. Fable 3

One of the most famous instances of ball-dropping (steady!) in video games, Peter Molyneux's third entry into the Fable canon stands the test of time not as a worthwhile trilogy-capper, but more as how forced iteration can completely destroy a game's likability. Not only did the core plot of you being King of Albion have none of the narrative drive from the previous game, but the tiniest things you wouldn't even expect developer Lionhead to change were done so completely. No longer could you preview and sample a range of clothes in a shop for instance, you had to manually pilot your character to a variety of style-specific mannequins, doing away with a perfectly acceptable menu system beforehand. This extended into your inventory too, with you essentially walking around menus instead of simply flicking through them - the worst part being a 3D diorama of a map that was supposed to represent entire towns, but due to its minimalist nature was impossible to find your way around on. These might seem like very small things you should just be able to cast aside, but when the core foundations of the experience put you on the back foot, only for the rest of the production to hammer home how little passion was present in comparison to the previous instalments, it only served to bury Fable as a once bankable title for good.